James R. Mirick sets the record straight on things he cares about

Civility! Not!

One of the attributes of the current highly-polarized political environment is the gradual degeneration of polite discourse. And, it starts at the top. For example, the current ruling party suggests that people hold different opinions than theirs are not just wrong, they are in fact traitors giving aid and comfort to the enemy. Sorry, respect for the persons you disagree with, however wrong-headed they may be, is a hallmark of civilization and of our democracy. Violate that, and this is what you get (from an article in the Times):

The Washington Post shut one of its blogs yesterday, saying it had drawn too many personal attacks, profanity and hate mail directed at the paper’s ombudsman

The closing was the second by a major newspaper in recent months. An experiment in allowing the public to edit editorials in The Los Angeles Times lasted just two days in June before it was shut because pornographic material was being posted on the site.The Post’s blog, open to the public since Nov. 21, was shut indefinitely yesterday afternoon with a notice from Jim Brady, executive editor of www.washingtonpost.com.Mr. Brady wrote that he had expected criticism of The Post on the site, but that the public had violated rules against personal attacks and profanity.”Because a significant number of folks who have posted in this blog have refused to follow any of those relatively simple rules, we’ve decided not to allow comments for the time being,” Mr. Brady wrote. “Transparency and reasoned debate are crucial parts of the Web culture, and it’s a disappointment to us that we have not been able to maintain a civil conversation, especially about issues that people feel strongly (and differently) about.”

In an interview, Mr. Brady said the site had been overwhelmed with what he described as vicious personal attacks against Deborah Howell, the newspaper’s ombudsman.

She wrote a column about Jack Abramoff, the lobbyist who pleaded guilty to conspiracy, fraud and tax evasion, and said that several Democrats “have gotten Abramoff campaign money,” apparently intending to say that they received campaign money from Mr. Abramoff’s clients.

Her column generated complaints, and after saying she thought her views were being misrepresented, she was attacked again, prompting her to say she would not post any more replies.

The complaints escalated into what Mr. Brady said were unprintable comments that started “sucking up the time of two people” to keep them from appearing on the blog.